Conventional pools, spas, ponds, and similar artificial water holders are conventionally formed by plaster or other cementitious material covering the side and bottom walls defining the pool or spa. Upon initial construction of the pool or spa, earth is excavated to form the appropriate shaped cavity for the pool or spa to occupy. Side and bottom walls are then formed using appropriate reinforcing means, along with plaster which forms the side and bottom wall of the pool or spa.
The plumbing to remove and add water to the pool or spa is engaged at distal ends into the plaster in a permanent fashion substantially flush with or slightly recessed from the plaster surface of the sidewall. To these distal ends are attached the various covers for the drains and the inlets or jets which bring water back into the pool or spa. In the case of spas, some of these inlets or jets are equipped with a user rotatable water fluid flow director which rotates in an engagement with a base fitting. The base fitting is permanently engaged to the pipe or water conduit feeding the jet incoming water under pressure.
In the case of flow directors, a rotatable flow director is engaged in a cavity formed in a flush mount with the plaster and is held into a rotational engagement within the cavity by a threadably engaged locking ring. The center of the body of the rotationally positionable flow director communicates water therethrough which may be aimed by rotating the flow director.
Unfortunately, in conventional construction the flush mounted retaining cavity does not allow for easy re-plastering of the pool or spa. Consequently, owners and contractors are left with little choice but to chip out the old plaster around the pipe engaging the flow director, and install pipe extensions to the existing plumbing. The extensions relocate the engagement cavity for the flow director extended from the old plaster surface. New plaster must then be placed to surround the destroyed material around the engagement cavity fitting increasing cost and potential for leaks at a later date.
Suffice it to say that this requirement to remove the old plaster and to cut or otherwise disturb old plumbing is the cause of extra costs in time and money. Further, the disassembly of old plumbing fixtures can cause leaks or cracks in the plumbing itself which will not be discovered until the new surface has been applied and the pool or spa put back into operation with pressurized water.
As such, there is an ongoing need for an extension adapter fitting that will allow relocation of the fluid flow director cavity away from the old plaster surface of the pool or spa, without the need to disassemble the existing plumbing pipes and fixtures. Such a device should obviate the need to destroy or damage existing plaster. Such a device should easily engage with a wide variety of such flow director cavities which are employed to house rotationally engaged fluid flow directors. Still further such a device should provide an easily viewed visual cue for the installer to determine the proper installation of the fitting to accommodate the thickness of the new plaster and concurrently position the new flow director substantially flush with the new surface. Additionally, it would also provide more utility if the adapter provides a seal engageable with the new plaster to prevent water leakage and/or to hold the adapter in a fixed sealed engagement with the preexisting plumbing fixtures.
With respect to the above description, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components or steps set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The various apparatus and methods of the invention are capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways which will be obvious to those skilled in the art once they review this disclosure. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
Consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other devices, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device. It is important, therefore, that the objects and claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Further objectives of this invention will be brought out in the following part of the specification, wherein detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing the invention without placing limitations thereon.